The Professional Left Podcast with Driftglass and Blue Gal · Driftglass and Blue Gal

Ep 956: 2025 In Review, Part 3 (of 3)

December 23, 2025·1 hr 14 min·5 clips

A group chat among Kansas and New York Young Republicans included the N-word used more than a dozen times, a reference to rape as 'epic,' and a discussion about fixing gas chambers to fit 'the Hitler aesthetic.'

The year is almost packed away. Recorded from the cornfield resistance on December 23rd, 2025, the episode treats the final week of the year as something that needs to be grabbed by the collar and tossed out. Then comes the deficit. The hosts use Elon Musk's DOGE cut estimates as a dry setup for a plain question: if those savings were real, why is the deficit not basically gone? September is the next folder. From there, the episode moves into October and starts piling up media receipts with the cadence of people who have watched this dodge for decades. The New York Times takes the stand. David Korn's criticism becomes part of the case, with the Times framed as treating MAGA lies about Portland like competing perceptions. The hosts do not buy that as neutrality. To them, the story is propaganda used to stir conflict while legacy media keeps reaching for the old comfort blanket of both-sides framing. The editorial board gets its turn. An unsigned October 11 editorial about America's political center draws open contempt, because the show treats that phrase as a durable fiction, not analysis. Blue Gal and Driftglass know this argument cold. One sharp callback is Driftglass saying he was writing against the same political-center myth more than 20 years ago. The repetition matters. Their anger is not novelty anger. It is archival anger, built from watching the same institutional reflex survive. October 14 raises the stakes. Politico's reporting on a young Republican group chat becomes evidence for the hosts' view that right-wing extremism is not some mysterious fringe surprise. Their charge is blunt: legacy media cannot fully admit how extreme the right has become without dragging Democrats into the blame frame. The close turns tender. After the receipts, jokes, and fury, they thank listeners for showing up, thinking critically, laughing when possible, and holding onto facts, empathy, and one another.

As heard by us

A year-end political segment built on headlines, quotes, and a blunt case against false balance.

The Professional Left spends this year-end episode moving through September and October 2025 with a steady, skeptical eye. It starts with Doge's deficit math, passes through a New York Times both-sides editorial, and lands on Politico's story about a young Republican group chat.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a year-end politics listen that ties the deficit, MAGA propaganda, and legacy-media both-sidesing into one sharp argument.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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